Page - 883 - in THE FIRST WORLD WAR - and the End of the Habsburg Monarchy, 1914 – 1918

The ‘Bread Peace’ 883 caps, as they had done before 1914. On 1 April 1918, the first international airmail line in the world was opened : Vienna-Olomouc-Kraków-Lviv-Proskurov-Kiev, which was flown until the end of the war, and thereafter until 1921, with military aeroplanes no longer fit for service at the front.2111 Each day, however, the 750,000 German and Austro-Hungarian soldiers consumed 300 coaches of supplies, so that hardly anything remained for removal. Furthermore, the underground organisations increasingly made their presence felt ; they sought to prevent the deliveries to the Central Powers and to support the farmers in hiding the stores. In calculating the one million tons of cereal crops agreed on in Brest, the Central Powers had persistently forgotten to include those amounts that three-quarters of a million soldiers consumed on the spot. Therefore, the amount delivered corresponded overall roughly to the agreements. But who was inter- ested in knowing this exactly ? Also in the case of the second country that could be regarded as defeated and showed a willingness to make peace, namely Romania, not everything went according to plan. Austria-Hungary’s clearly paraded intention to demonstrate a renunciation of annexa- tions had a blemish. During the talks with Romania, which had taken place parallel to those in Brest-Litovsk, Hungary demanded ‘frontier revisions’ from Romania, by which it understood above all the cession of Turnu Severin and several fertile oil fields in Moldavia. In this question, there was complete agreement between Wekerle and Tisza. To compensate for the territories to be ceded to Hungary, the prospect was held out to Romania of acquiring Bessarabia from the bankrupt assets of Russia. Events in Russia had made Romania ready for peace, and especially Emperor Karl’s threat did not fail to have the desired effect on the Romanian King Ferdinand I. The collision again threatened in another area, namely where Austrian and German inter- ests clashed. On 20 February, Emperor Karl telegraphed Kaiser Wilhelm : one could not expect Romania to give up the most important economic assets it possessed. Otherwise, the Danube Monarchy would be the victim of a desperately hateful neighbour.2112 It was not these formulations that brought Kaiser Wilhelm to boiling point, however, but rather other statements : ‘The alliance loyalty and the desire to hold out with Germany until the general peace are no less dear to me than to you’, wrote Karl. ‘But I most urgently beseech you once more to commission your representatives not to overstretch the economic demands and to help me in the endeavour to conclude a definitive peace with Romania. A disappointment in the Romanian question as well would trigger a mood here that would without fail have exceedingly critical consequences.’2113 On ac- count of  – what he saw as  – the insinuations and the laxness of his ally, Wilhelm was furious. His notes in the margin of this telegram reflected the entire range of emotions : ‘He threatens to drop out. We have heard this joke before. But I will not allow anything to be wrested from Me against the interests of My country and in disregard of the successes and losses of My army. The departure of Austria does not daunt Me. It would